Amber Lynn Benton 11/2/20 Amber Lynn Benton 11/2/20

Applying for BFA In Ceramics

In January I decided to return to university to complete my degree. The boys are older, we are planning a move back to the mountains, I really didn’t have that much course work left to complete, and I decided that if I was going to finish I should just do it.

Yeah, 2020 was the perfect year to turn my life and our homeschool upside down to try and finish my degree…

I eased myself in during Spring semester with only two classes - a Liberal Studies general ed requirement and a Digital Media Design class. Maybe I’ll share more about my coursework and experience with those classes some other time. Enter in the worldwide pandemic and all classes moved online. We had to rearrange the entire household to give my husband an office with the door and get everyone online for school, music lessons, etc. Turmoil…

I had hope that we would be back on campus for the summer. I had planned an independent study in Ceramics to help me get my bearings again with clay before beginning projects classes– it had been almost 20 years! Like most of our plans for this year they were just washed away. There was a smaller class offered remotely this summer called Topics in Ceramics. It was a lovely little class with several fun projects. Also during the summer the boys and I dug and processed clay from our creek and drove to Virginia to buy a kick wheel. I’ll tell you all about each of them in turn some other time.

This Fall Semester I have been attempting to carry out the Independent Study that I had planned for the summer. Enter a huge tree falling on our house knocking a hole in the boys bedroom during Jae Emerling’s lecture on Surrealism. Just when I was getting the insurance stuff sorted out with that disaster I was rear-ended on the way home from a photography workshop sponsored by Atkins Library. It totaled my car, gave me whiplash and gave me a second baptism of insurance paperwork, phone calls and emails. And of course this happened during the two weeks I had set aside to put together my portfolio slideshow for my BFA review. I pulled it together but just barely! You can take a look at the slideshow here:

BFA in Ceramics Presentation

I’m now digging deep and pressing forward to complete as much work as I can for my Independent Study. I set up a smorgasbord of things to play around with during this semester. In some ways it is very much akin to a sampler quilt. I’m gathering together as many techniques and ideas as I can to give me things to pull from in upcoming projects and thesis classes.

Amber Benton 9/23/15 Amber Benton 9/23/15

How To Be A Creative Mom When Life Is Full

Creative Mom's Must Make Time To Create

My days are full and not unlike this picture. All that I do is filled up and punctuated by all that they do. I'll be honest I don't always appreciate it as much as I should. I have actually timed the interruptions - going three to five minutes without someone running up to ask a question or tell me something is quite a long stretch many days.

For many years my creative time has come in spurts - catch as catch can and finding the time to create has been a continual challenge. I knit sporadically and I sometimes sew. Those are rather easy when you have young children and don't have a studio or dedicated space to work. (No spare bedrooms in our home for a few years yet!)

[bctt tweet="For a creative mom the urge to create seems to be strongest when the daily work and responsibility is heaviest."]

But amidst the chaos, interruptions and daily work and responsibility that comes from caring for a large family the urge to be a creative mom never really leaves. Sometimes the cry is strong. Each time that siren call wailed in my ear I would think about the stacks of sketchbooks, drawings and illustrations that I had shoved in the back of the closet waiting for just the right time. Next year I turn forty and I have begun to understand - that perfect time - it will never really alive. So not too long ago I drug them all out and piled them all up. (There were so many more than I realized!)

As I watched all that evidence stack up in front of me I became convinced that I should just shove some things aside and make room. So I am just doing it. I am making time to be creative.

I try to make the most of many little moments during the day and work consistently in the evenings. I am learning to keep my focus, returning to the work at hand after the interruptions. I am striving to not be so sporadic but to develop a consistent habit of not only drawing but bringing my sketches and ideas to completion.

You can follow me on Instagram if you want to watch my progress.

How I'm Learning Online

Taking time to learn is just as important as taking time to be creative. Last year I began to refamiliarize myself with the Adobe software by subscribing to the Creative Cloud and using Lynda.com as my classroom - it's been a long time since college, ya'll! Thanks also to classes on SkillShare and CreativeBug I have learned how to take many of my sketches and ideas and turn them into repeat patterns. I have also learned how to combine Photoshop and Illustrator so that I can use my natural media drawings in surface design.

Creative Mom's Must Make Space To Create

I still do not have a dedicated space to create - I have taken over a small sewing table that is tucked in a dormer window in by bedroom and then work at our school table when I want to make a bigger mess. I have suffered only a couple of toddler 'accidents' which resulted in some pieces of 'shared work' and wasted ink. Through routine, conversation, and ensuring that they have space and materials for work of their own my space and materials (while still a curiosity) are now respected.

(Since writing this I carved out a larger space in my bedroom...check it out!)

What I'm Doing Right Now

Right now I am working now through that stack of sketchbooks and illustrations that I have accumulated over the years. My goal is to build a portfolio of my illustration and surface pattern designs here on this website. I'll be sharing my progress and process on this blog and more frequently on my Instagram feed.

I am also putting together some fun prompts for creative mom's who like me have struggled to find the time and space to play with a bit of color. Click Here To Read More If This Sounds Like You